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Tarij Goldhorn
'Youth' Tarij the son of Darrakn, former chieftain of the Jaro Clan. As a baby, he was found amongst the bloody bodies of his murdered parents by Blackmoore, Count of Oldlyn and offical commander of the camps which held Trolls and Urks. Blackmoore gave him the name Tarij, which was another word for "slave" in the human language. Blackmoore returned to his fortress, Oldlyn Keep, but Tarij was thrown in the camps, there he resided as a gladiator— with all the savagery of an Troll, but with the keen strategic intellect of a human. He was clever, quick and enormous even by Troll standards , he was trained and taught by many Trolls to fight. This brutal and savage life would have turned him into, yet another Troll Gladiator who lives for nothing but death in the arena. But one day, one of the guards of the Camp, lost a book. Usually this event would mean nothing, but the book was discovered by Tarij. It was a copy of the Encyclopedia Imperica, filled with a wide variety of knowledge; Tarij hid the book and tried to read it in his rest time. In time he learned to understand the letters of the Human language and had a basic knowledge of culture and science thanks to the book. This gave rise to something he has never felt before, a feeling deep inside, a craving for knowledge he had never felt before. He wanted to know more, far more. However Blackmoore's abusive beatings both in and out of the ring began to take its toll. He would do everything he can to try to acquire books, even going as far as convincing Vargr to steal books for him, those books will appear a few months later somewhere in the camp and the guards would collect them, not knowing that they have been read by the slave. But as he gained knowledge, Tarij’s hatred for the humans grew more and more, the desire for his people to be free once more overtook him. One day chaos erupted in the camp, he used the diversion created by a combat between the local Urk leaders inside Oldlyn camp to escape from his cell unnoticed. He used the chaos in the camp to quickly overpower the few guards of the provisions storage and grab some food and water for himself. He then left Oldlyn, hoping to never return. He headed north, constantly on the move to avoid any Imperial parties that might be looking for him, his fears where not in vain as security in the camps noticed him missing. He managed to avoid or kill all of the patrols send to find him. All of the walking and the years of punishment have taken its toll, Tarij couldn’t last long, and would have probably died if he wasn’t discovered, by an Elfish wanderer named Leo Okarian. The meeting between the two was far from friendly at first, with Leo stalking Tarij for days before revealing himself to the troll, the troll responded with an attack, as he thought the Elf is a Human. After a short combat, Tarij collapsed due to exhaustion. The Elf, having examined Tarij for some time, tied the troll down and waited for him to wake. Upon awaking, he questioned the troll and in return answered some of the Trolls questions. This unfortunate meeting will grow into a cooperation between the two wonderers. They helped each other and created a strange relationship, with Leo teaching Tarij knowledge he had gathered from the whole of the land and Tarij teaching the Elf fighting techniques, alien to the creature of knowledge and secrecy. The elf would help Tarij’s body overcome the wounds inflicted upon him earlier in his life and grow even stronger than before. As everything good in the life of the troll, this was not to last, one day, the two were attacked by a imperial patrol while resting, the troll was quick to act, but his Elfish companion was struck down before his eyes. This send the troll into a frenzy, killing the entire patrol and even seeking out their camp, he alone attacked the camp and slaughtered everything in his blind anger, nothing was spared by the fists of the slave. However, Tarij was taken down and captured, his extraordinary skillset was noticed by the locals and he was taken to an internment camp run by one Cothar Cettaric. It was here that he met an old Troll with glowing red eyes named Ghar, who told him of the ways of treatment the trolls are suffering and of the old ways he was still keeping within himself. He told him that the only one still thinking of embracing this was the undefeated Ojin Khagan, Khagan of the Ferra Clan. When another Troll told Tarij that Blackmoore had arrived at the camp looking for him, Tarij escaped again, and sought out Ojin Khagan. 'In the North' After searching the north, he came across Gora Khagan and proved himself to him, Gora took Tarij under his wing, teaching him the tongue of the Trollkind, and telling him that—based on the tattered swaddling cloth Tarij showed him — he was a part of the exiled Jaro Clan. After spending some time with the Khagan, Tarij decided to take his leave of them for a while in order to search out his roots in the far far north, where no one has ever been and where the Jaro clan is rumored to be hiding. After trekking to exhaustion, Tarij was rescued by the Jaros and taken to their camp. There he met Thar shaman, who told Tarij that he was the son of the chieftain of the Jaros. After finding his place among the Jaro clan, Thar taught Tarij the old ways of the Trolls, before the Human enslavement, and soon Tarij was accepted as a member of the clan. It was some time after the intergration that he was called away by Thar, and came upon a quiet place where he had never been or seen before. Here he was to be initiated. In one of the most spiritual experiences of his life, Tarij befriended the spirits of the earth mother and sun father, Exa and Tangra. He became the first new Khan since the humans vile enslavement of the Wild Races. He returned to the camp a new Troll and became fully immersed in the old ways of the Khan and his clan, embracing his role as son of the chieften and the chosen one of Tangra. This was a significant and symbolic event, since Tairj was the first Khan to be accepted by the spirits since ancient times. Not only did this mean Tarij would be destined to be one of the greatest Khans in Troll history, but it also meant that the spirits finally forgave the Trollkind for fighting eachother, and deemed Tarij as the first of a brand new generation of Khans. The camp was soon visited by a wandering stranger. At first, Tarij spoke pleasantly with him, but began to grow angry when the stranger accused the Jaros of hiding away. His fury — and Trollish pride — growing within him, Tarij informed the stranger that he would join with Gora and lay siege to the encampments. The stranger dismissed Gora as a "Human following dreamer", and said that the humans were not worth fighting. Enraged, Tarij challenged the stranger to single combat. The stranger threw aside his cloak to reveal well-worn black plate armor and a massive warhammer. After a short but brutal contest, Tarij managed to disarm him, but was prevented from throttling the stranger by some of his clan. It was then that the stranger revealed himself as Ojin Khagan — the Khagan of the Ferra clan. Ojin had been contacted by Thar about the return of the son of Darrakn. The Khagan decided to provoke Tarij into a fight to see if Thar's praise was deserved — and it was. Not only was Tarij able to challenge Ojin's strength, he also was able to best him — a feat only once before accomplished by Tarij's Father. 'Liberation' Ojin pledged his loyalty to Tarij and explained his strategy for liberating the encampments. Per Ojin's plan, Tarij infiltrated the camps masquerading as one of the downtrodden, lethargic prisoners, and then riled the Trolls up with shows of the spirits, who named him Khan. With the downtrodden Trolls revitalized by their restored heritage, they quickly overran the encampments. There the Trolls met the Urk leader, Shatogtar, who told them of a Human outpost that had the local human leader, Tarij and his allies assaulted the human base, aided by the Urks he killed the human leader, a Knight, but the rest of the humans ambushed the Wilds and captured Tarij, imprisoning him within the dark dungeon. He learned from an Urk, with whom he shared a cell, that the Humans planned to execute them both. Fortunately, though the Humans were strangely informed, they were unaware of Tarij's abilities, and the Khan was able to escape and free his warriors. One urk, however, reported that Shatogtar was not in the cells — and that he was taken as the first execution. Tarij raced to the altar, Tarij and his warriors were able to kill the three Guards and save the Urk leader. Tarij and Shatogtar then allied to free the rest of their kind. The first three encampments, where easilly taken down. On the fourth, the Tarij and Shatogtar where too easily recognized, and thus they had to resort to the numbers of the new Wild Races to liberate the encampment. At the fifth, however, they were even better prepared — knights from Oldlyn had been stationed at the remaining encampments, so that whichever camp they attacked, there would be a greater resistance. During the liberation of this encampment — now the Wild Races' outpost of Freethorn — Ojin was killed, impaled from behind by a knight's lance. With his dying breath, he gave Tarij his black plate and warhammer. Category:People